ELECTORAL COMMISSION CHAIRMAN ON ELECTIONS

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 MOSCOW 011695

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR EUR/RUS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/19/2016
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KDEM SOCI RS
SUBJECT: ELECTORAL COMMISSION CHAIRMAN ON ELECTIONS

REF: A. MOSCOW 11413

B. MOSCOW 11388

Classified By: DCM Daniel A. Russell: 1.4 (b,d).

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Summary
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1. (C) Central Electoral Commission (CEC) Chairman Aleksandr
Veshnyakov reviewed the October 8 regional elections, recent
developments in electoral technology, prospects for the 2007
regional and national (Duma) elections, and possible further
amendments to the election law in a meeting with Embassy
October 13. Highlights:


-- the CEC plans to introduce a voter hotline and offer
informational seminars both for would-be election observers
and parties registered after January 1, 2007;

-- the Novgorod experiment with electronic voting was a
success and will be continued;

-- there are plans to introduce SMS reporting of vote tallies
for interested election observers;

-- voter participation had plunged about 20 percent in
Karelia October 8 because of the de-listing of Yabloko and
the elimination of the "against all" option for the
thoroughly disenchanted voter;

-- legislation is under consideration in the Duma which could
allow for the calling of "snap" elections and could make
registration requirements for political parties more
stringent;

-- Veshnyakov will lead a small delegation to the U.S. at the
time of the November elections. End summary.

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Electronic Voting a Qualified Success
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2. (C) Central Electoral Commission (CEC) Chairman Aleksandr
Veshnyakov opened his meeting with Embassy October 13 by
describing his impressions of Russia's latest experiment with
electronic voting, in Novogorod on October 8. Veshnyakov
described the voting process as easy to use by voters of all
ages, but he thought a public awareness campaign would be
needed, should the CEC decide to use electronic voting more
widely in Russia. The process met the standards of the
Council of Europe, and observers from Hungary, Ukraine,
Australia, Austria, and Great Britain had been favorably
impressed with the experiment.

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SMS Vote Tracking Experiment
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3. (C) Another initiative being pioneered by the CEC, said
Veshnyakov, is SMS vote-tally reporting. Noting that there
are 130 million mobile phones in Russia, Veshnyakov said the
CEC had "patented" a process for providing real-time polling
station results to "anyone" with a phone who has subscribed
to the service. Veshnyakov touted the initiative as designed
to overcome the Russian voter's distrust of the electoral
process. As designed, it would allow voters to compare
tallies provided at local polling places with those reported
to regional electoral commissions. Veshnyakov said the
experiment had been tried on a limited scale in Novgorod. It
would be more widely introduced in the March 2007 regional
and national (Duma) elections.

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A Look at the October 8 Regional Elections
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4. (C) Veshnyakov pronounced himself satisfied with the
conduct of the October 8 regional elections (reftels). He
thought the election results showed that the more
ideologically democratic parties (Yabloko, SPS, the
Republican Party) were in trouble. Yabloko had done poorly
--two percent-- in Primorskiy Kray, one of the few contests
it had entered, while the SPS had declined to participate.
Veshnyakov noted parenthetically that a key proving ground
for SPS will be the December 3 election in Perm, where SPS
Chairman Nikita Belykh will head his party's list. The
Republican Party's performance was also underwhelming, it
polled about one percent in Astrakhan. The lesson,

MOSCOW 00011695 002 OF 002


Veshnyakov thought, was that the parties must unite, but
"they won't, and that is the problem."


5. (C) Veshnyakov was more optimistic about prospects for the
"new left." Its three parties --the Russian Party of Life,
the Party of Pensioners, and Rodina-- separately did well in
several of the nine races, and he thought their collective
performance would be better once they merged on October 28.


6. (C) Voter turnout on October 8 was "about what it had
been" in the previous, March elections. Veshnyakov noted
participation had increased in six regions and declined in
the remaining three. The only cause for concern, he
admitted, was Karelia, where turnout plummeted about twenty
percent. Veshnyakov ascribed the slump to:

-- the de-listing of Yabloko, "which might have won 10 - 15
percent of the vote there," and a subsequent boycott by its
voters;
-- disturbances in Kondopoga, which may have kept some timid
voters from the polls,
-- the absence, this time around, of an "against all" ballot
option for the thoroughly disenchanted voter.

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Looking Ahead to 2007
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7. (C) With the new election law amendments scheduled for
full implementation as of January 1, 2007, Veshnyakov
forecast a reduction of the number of registered parties from
the current 34 to "more than ten." The CEC was planning a
series of informational meetings with the remaining
registered parties early in 2007, which he invited Embassy
representatives to attend. On the agenda as well would be
efforts, both electronically and through seminars, to inform
election observers of the procedures and of their rights.
Also planned was the introduction of a hotline, where voters
will be able to air their complaints about the electoral
system or their observations about the conduct of a given
election. Public Chamber member Andrey Przhezdomskiy who
accompanied Veshnyakov at the meeting, described plans to
unite the efforts of discrete organizations and to complement
the CEC's attempts to create an educated pool of election
observers thoughout the country.


8. (C) Veshnyakov thought it possible there could be further
modifications to the electoral law before the 2007 regional
and national elections. (The current Duma session is the
last in which changes can be introduced which would affect
the 2007 contests.) He was worried by some proposals
currently under discussion in the legislature. Among them:

-- an amendment that would allow for the calling of "snap"
elections;
-- proposals that would make it more difficult to register
political parties;
-- further language on extremism that could be used to bar
candidates or their parties from participation in elections.

The CEC was lobbying against any further changes to existing
electoral legislation. He expected the picture to clarify in
early November.


9. (C) Veshnyakov told Embassy he would lead a delegation of
5 - 7 persons to Washington, D.C., and "one or two other
destinations" in conjunction with the November U.S.
elections. Embassy offered to assist Veshnyakov and his
delegation.
BURNS